Referendum for National Water Management

Mr Howard says parochial differences need to be put aside in order to protect Australia’s water resources. He says water management is Australia’s greatest environment challenge and must be approached on a national basis.

As with the Snowy River Hydro Scheme, I suspect that it would only be a matter of time before the federal government of the day would then want to privatise the whole scheme. Create a national monopoly and then flog it off to the highest bidder with some hefty consultancy commissions to be made by corporate patrons.

In principle, I support a national approach to managing the Murray-Darling Rivers, so let’s have a referendum on the matter to transfer power to federal administration, and include a second option to amend the constitution to prevent any government ever privatising it.